


we rise

by littledust



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-31
Updated: 2016-01-31
Packaged: 2018-05-18 15:42:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5933773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littledust/pseuds/littledust
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He felt them come back, somehow, and woke up to greet them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	we rise

Rey wipes her eyes as she straightens her spine. Finn's brow was warm under her lips, promising life. She saved Finn when they couldn't save Han; when Han couldn't save Ben from Kylo Ren. _Worth a half portion at least_ , she imagines Finn saying, trying to make a joke out of all the losses they suffered on the way to victory.

Now she has to go find a legend and ask it to return.

She passes Poe Dameron on her way out. She stops him with a firm grip around his arm. "Keep him safe," she says, her voice flattening with the effort of keeping the Force out of it. Jedi mind tricks are not to be performed on allies.

Poe clasps her shoulder, turning her vaguely threatening gesture into a moment of camaraderie, brothers in arms. Unwillingly, Rey cracks a smile. "You'll be the first to know if the little prince wakes before you get back," Poe promises. He refers to an old folktale about a little prince asleep in his palace, waiting for one with a true heart to bring him the Water of Life. Rey has always loved that one, knowing the value of water in a desert, how sorely tempted the true-hearted one would be on the journey. Unwillingly, her face splits into a smile.

"May the Force be with you," she says, and lets him go.

*

Every day before he visits Finn, Poe pays his respect in the Hall of Remembrance.

The Resistance grieves its losses in small ways, the only ways available in the endless preparation for mission upon mission. After the Resistance established its permanent base on D'Qar, someone wrote the name of every fallen comrade in one of the hallways leading out to the hangar. Still others annotated the names, writing them as they would appear in their native tongues if they grew up speaking a language other than Basic. Then an enterprising soul tied scraps of cloth anywhere they could manage. Now, whenever there is movement in the hangar, the scraps of cloth stir, pulled into flight.

No one asks the General who wrote the name Han Solo, although General Organa's handwriting is known throughout the galaxy. Poe underlines the name with his finger, not wanting to fade the name by touching it. He lost friends in the attack on Starkiller Base, and it's unfair that this is the name that grieves him the most. He never thought he would see Han Solo grounded.

Finn, at least, is alive, although still sleeping off his wounds. When the medics aren't looking, Poe dares to trace one of the veins in Finn's wrist. "Maybe our girl will find the Water of Life, eh?" he asks, because he likes the sound of that. _Our girl._ Rey is no more his than the Falcon, but any port in a storm, or so the saying goes.

*

"Coffee," Finn mumbles around a tongue that feels leaden and stupid. Then, thinking better of it: "Water."

The attending doctor gives him a brisk once-over, her eyes crinkled with amusement. "I wonder which of your friends is which," she says, but if that's a joke Finn is supposed to be in on, he slept through the explanation. Everything else she says is much more professional: seriously wounded, asleep for sixteen days because they have few resources for the number of injuries they see. Her explanation is half-apologetic, half-angry, as though Finn were going to judge her for having the resources of neither the Republic nor the First Order.

"Where are Poe and Rey?" Finn wants to know once the entire medical team is satisfied that he can move all his limbs.

"Sleeping," the first doctor tells him, then shoots her colleagues a warning look. "Not to be woken, no matter what they said. They both got in a few hours ago."

If Finn closes his eyes, he can see it in his mind: Rey striding out of the Falcon, new lines on her face and new light in her eyes, a living legend following behind her; Poe, pulling in on a battered X-Wing, oil-stained and sweat-soaked from emergency engineering, BB-8 beeping in agitation. He felt them come back, somehow, and woke up to greet them. The idea is medically ridiculous, straight out of a fairytale. But then again, so are the Jedi.

He slips out when the medics start making noises about fetching General Organa. It's easy enough: they have other patients, and they're not exactly trained guards. Finn owes General Organa a hello and his deepest condolences, but it wouldn't be right to see her before Rey and Poe.

Finn rounds the corner, trying to look like he knows where he's going, and a series of ecstatic beeps greets him. "Shh, BB-8!" two voices say in the same chiding tone, and there are Poe and Rey, waiting for him with wide, identical smiles.

They run into each other's arms, and the resulting collision should cause a tangle of limbs, but somehow they all stay upright. "I missed you guys," Finn says, and, "Took you long enough," Poe says, and, "Hello," Rey says. They start laughing and talking all at once, with BB-8 contributing beeps and whistles until surely they've woken the whole base.

_Water_ , Finn thinks, answering the doctor's question from before. Seeing them is as good as discovering water in a desert, and as necessary.


End file.
